A day spent below sea level...

 

In Death Valley you have to get up early....

So we were in the breakfast buffet by 7.30

And out at Badwater not long after that.

It's called Badwater because the water in the small pond there is too salty to drink.

Even at this hour it is over 100 degrees.

The salt flats are very impressive and dangerous. No one goes even a few feet without water. We are advised to drink a gallon of water a day.

Even though it is called Death Valley there is plenty of life here.

Next stop is the Devils Golf Course.

A field of crystallised salts in the middle of the valley floor.

A highlight of the park is this 9 mile drive through canyons where the rocks resemble an artists palette.

The rocks have been stained by minerals.

It's a very silent and eerie place.

Back down to the valley floor.

It's getting hotter and there are fewer people about....

........ we peek into Golden Canyon, but its past 10am now so no hiking allowed.

Just past the visitors centre are the remains of the Harmony Borax Works. Borax was successfully mined here in the 1880s and removed from the valley by the famous 20 mule teams.

We are the only ones there.

Hannibal seems a long way away.

So we scoot back here....

..... to enjoy this lovely spring fed pool for a couple of hours.

There are many places in the Valley to see sunset, but this one takes some beating.

Zabriskie Point.

It is composed of sediments from the Furnace Creek Lake which dried up five million years ago—long before Death Valley came into existence.

Quite breathtaking.

 

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